Do Adventures Always Bring Romance?
by Mystic Tink
Summary: When strange beasts try to take over our world four boys are called upon to fight and battle their way through to save us all, but is any man match enough for the King? And when a strange girl begs them to take her along, things get turned upside down!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey all! This is my first fic. so please go easy on me! It's just something I made up in sixth class for a competition and I decided to jazz it up a bit and see what people really think of it! For anyone not familiar with the names in this story Niamh is pronounced "Nee-iv", Óisín is "Uh-sheen" and Séamus is "Shay-mas".**

**So go ahead now, enjoy and tell me what you think!!!! ******

Niamh was running as fast as she could but fog was rolling in fast now, curling her misty fingers around the darkened landscape and causing confusion. Niamh had nearly fallen and broken her neck more than once and it was getting nearly impossible to see. However, no matter how hard it was for her to see, she could still hear properly and she did not like what she heard. The thing was getting closer; she could hear its feet pounding heavily into the earth and feel the ground shudder with every step it took. Even though her muscles were screaming for her to stop and every breath was agony she pushed herself to go harder, but it was not enough. The thing caught her! She could feel its clammy hands on her arms and she screamed as terror filled her stomach. She struggled and fought with all she had in her, but it just whipped her around and roared in her face (she nearly fainted with the smell!) Even though the mist was clouding her vision she could see all she needed to see. She could see the monster's face clearly; its yellowy, crooked teeth, she could smell it's foul, rotten breath and feel its hungry little eyes devouring her. Panic rose in her throat as a hand of ice gripped her heart. _I'm going to die!_ She thought for what felt like the millionth time that night. _It's going to kill me! It'll rip out my throat! Maybe it'll eat me! _She couldn't breathe for the panic and the fact that the monster had its grimy hands around her neck didn't really help matters much! Her knees were beginning to go from under her as her hands desperately grappled at its fists and little white lights were appearing in front of her eyes, she was gasping for air...and she was failing.

Suddenly there was a flash of steel, a clash as metal hit bone, the monster froze for a split second and the hands loosened their grip. In that brief moment of respite Niamh sucked in as much air as she could, but then the head fell off its shoulders in a great rush of dark, warm blood that drenched her. The body fell heavily on top of her and the little air she had managed to get into her lungs was beaten out of her with an "Oomph" and a moan. Niamh started to push at the body that was crushing her but it was too heavy.

The person who had beheaded the monster then noticed her predicament and helped to roll the body off her.

"Oh God." moaned Niamh as she turned and vomited on the grass. Her body had never felt more battered and bruised and just plain exhausted! Suddenly something large and pale flew down beside her face and she flinched away in fear.

"Oh, sorry!" said a deep voice,"It's just my hand, let me help you up!"

Niamh felt stupid now for flinching away from a helping hand, so she extended her own and allowed herself to be pulled up with ease.

When she was standing up she found herself looking at a broad chest so she looked up into the face of the man who had saved her. From what she could tell – which wasn't a whole lot given the dark, foggy night – he was quite tall, with dark hair and dark eyes, he kind of looked familiar, but Niamh wasn't sure where from. She thought he would be pretty good-looking during the day when she could see him properly, but for now she had bigger problems and bigger questions!

"Are you ok?" he asked looking at her closely

"Yeah, I-I thi-think so." She managed

"You sure? You're shaking all over!"

"Do you blame me?! I've just been chased all over the friggin' countryside by a character out of a "Brothers Grimm" story! Oh and thanks for beheading him on top of me! I'm covered in blood and could have been crushed!"

"Yeah well you're welcome for saving your life!" he replied angrily as he wiped the sword on the grass.

Niamh sighed, realising that she had been a bit stupid there. "You're right, I'm sorry. I'm ok, thanks to you! If you hadn't been there I'd be monster food right now." She gulped at that thought. "So who do I have the pleasure to thank?"

"My name's Óisin Fitzgerald." He said, grinning and extending his hand which she took.

" Well Óisin, I don't know how I could ever thank you enough!" She replied earnestly.

ÓIsin smiled at her as if to say there was no way, but instead he said; "I'll let you know when the time comes! But for now we need to get away from here. Come on, I was with a group of lads, we should meet up with them and we'll take you home."

Niamh wasn't going anywhere alone so she agreed and went with him. They began to walk but Niamh had no idea where they were walking to because she couldn't see.

After stumbling along for a while Óisin turned and said;

"Here, give me your hand and I'll guide you, it gets pretty bad over here." He took her small hand in his large one and it occurred to her that she had never felt so safe before with anyone. It felt good. Really good and she gripped his hand a bit tighter.

"So where do you live?" Óisin asked, startling her out of her reverie.

"Oh, err, I live out around by the lake, do you know it?"

He turned to look at her, "Yeah I know it, I live out there too. You're not old Sean McDonald's daughter are you?" he asked cautiously.

"Yeah I am, why? What's it to you?" Naimh asked defensively.

"Oh, err, nothing." He mumbled and turned away, but he dropped her hand. She couldn't see his face and she asked;

"Have we met before?"

"Yeah, once; at the weekly market. I was with some of my friends and we were sitting down by the apple stall as usual. You were out shopping and you tripped over one of my friends feet and yelled yourself hoarse!" he chuckled at bit at that. "Anyway, I jumped up to defend him and you turned on me – I have never been more afraid in my life!"

Niamh felt pretty sheepish; she remembered that day and the more than shocked expression that had been on his face! It had definitely not been one of her better days and she had been in an unbelievably bad mood!

"Oh." She said like a scolded five year old, "Sorry. I didn't mean it, it was just a bad day and then I tripped and everything went everywhere and hell it was bloody embarrassing!" Óisín laughed and replied; "Ah sure your grand! It's in the past and can't be redone so we'll just have to move on!"

They began to walk again in silence. They hadn't been walking for long when Niamh began to hear voices in the fog. Suddenly three boys appeared out from behind a cluster of trees and began to walk towards them calling out to Óisín.

When they met Niamh could barely make out the rough details of the new lads. One was only a little taller than her so he would be around 5ft 9" and he appeared to have fair hair and dark eyes. The second was taller and had both dark eyes and dark hair and the last one was very tall but appeared to have reddish hair and light eyes. They stared incredulously at Niamh and Óisín.

"Don't tell me this is what you've been doing this whole time!" The tallest one said unbelievingly.

"Feck off you!" Óisín replied "No, one of them was chasing Niamh here and I killed it. But we can't just let her go home alone because there might be more of them."

"Oh..."

"Yeah, "Oh"! Niamh this, I regret to say, is one of my best friends Tom, that over there is Dean, he's the one with the black hair and the last guy is Séamus." Óisín introduced the guys."But now we really need to get going because we have a bit of a walk ahead of us!"

They walked on and Óisín described the monster to the others.

"Sounds like it was a big one, but hardly big enough to be here on a mission." Tom said grimly. Óisín sighed; "Yeah I know. This just means that more of them are getting through now."

"What's going on?" Niamh asked, then seeing they were not going to tell her she said;"I won't stop bugging you until you tell me!" They paused and seemed to consider, then went away a bit from her and seemed to talk. The talk turned into an argument but it was settled and they came back.

"Oh come on! It's hardly like it's the end of the world if you tell me is it?" she laughed, but then stopped at the ever more sombre look on their faces.

"You sure you can handle it?" Séamus asked cautiously.

"Handle what?"

"What we're about to tell you."He replied cryiptically.

"Well I won't know that 'till you tell me will I!"

"Ok, when we get to your garden we'll tell you what you need to know."

Her stomach filled with anticipation and dread at his grim words and they walked on.

**Hope you liked it!! ******** I know it's quite long but I'll try to make the next chapter shorter! Please review and tell me what you think so I can improve and make it a better reading experience for you!!**


	2. Chapter 2

Niamh looked around at the group and started to really fear what they were going to tell her. "Well," Séamus began, "it's kind of hard to explain but I'll do my best. Far away on a planet called Demrâch lives a race of beings who go from planet to planet taking control of and ruling it. On the last planet we heard of they took all human beings hostage and made them into worse than slaves. But they did worse things to others. Some families they kept in their dungeons, well fed and well treated to make treatment later on all the worse. Their opinion was that if you kept someone locked up, hungry and badly treated then they will hate you and long for death. However if they were kept well then their will to live is stronger and they begin to feel secure, this makes it all the worse when they eventually and inevitably come for you. They just come randomly to your dwelling and depending on what kind of mood they're in they will take a certain member of the family, maybe a younger brother, an older sister, mother or father. Then they are taken to a chamber far below the hold and they are tortured until they finally give in and die. That's why they keep people so well fed, they live longer under torture. From the evidence we've seen all over the country, they've already started the process here." A grim and shocked silence greeted the end of this gruesome tale.

Niamh for her part hadn't said a word throughout the whole thing. She was too much in shock!

"But...How...what...there are no..." she attempted to speak but there were so many different things going on in her head and she was so confused that she had to stop.

"Ok," she took a deep breath and began again, "Ok, let me get this straight! There are aliens from another planet who are taking people from their homes and treating them like slaves or royalty and torturing them until they die! And this is happening here in Ireland?" she looked desperately around as if begging them to tell her they were just playing some horrible joke on her! They only looked sadly back at her.

"Yes that's basically it." Séamus replied.

"So where do you guys come into it then? Are ye like Earth's protectors or something?" Niamh was half joking, sure she had gone mad by this point.

"Er..yea, something like that." Said Tom, the one she remembered had the red hair.

"Ok, but how come I don't know anything about them? I mean if they've been taking people you would think others would've started talking. Someone should have seen something! They're so big and...noticeable! How come someone didn't get rid of them sooner?"

"Well if you had seen something what would you say? 'Oh sorry sir, yes I do know what happened to your daughter, she was kidnapped by a huge monster from another planet!'? No I didn't think so."

_Hmmm, fair point_, she thought.

They kept walking and were nearly there when Niamh said something that had been rattling around her head for a while now.

"How did you guys get picked to do this? Do you have to have special powers or something or are you just out for an adventure?"

"Nah," said Oisín "It's the typical story, none of us know who our parents are, we were raised by some freak with a beard who told us of all this and as usual we were trained from a very early age to do all this. I wish it were more interesting, but the fact is that orphans are less of a risk in these situations and won't be missed by a family if they are killed. Why?" he looked at her curiously.

"Oh, er no reason. Just wondering." Niamh replied and looked around. They were coming out of the gloomy forest and entering a small village with thatched roofs on the houses and a small square in the center of the few shops, tavern and single church.

"We're nearly there. Just down this road for a bit now." Niamh said as she pointed to a small alleyway leading off behind the tavern. The group walked again until they came up to a large manor house in some dis-repair. The walls were covered with age old ivy that had over-grown so much that it covered most of the front windows, there was only one light on in the house that they could see. The front garden was full of aincient weeds and dead plants. The combination of the covered windows, one with the light attempting to shine out from it in vain, the overgrown garden and the mist clinging to it all gave the whole place a decidedly eeiry and forbidding feel.

"You live here?" said Dean, the one with the black hair uncertainly.

"I used to live here, now I just exist here to take care of my stupid drunk idiot of a father. It's terrible, I feel like I'm caring for a bloody baby! I have to do all the cooking, cleaning, shopping! Everything! Well, I suppose it's pretty obvious that I don't really clean anymore but that's only because every time I did he came home and just fecked it all up, so I just gave up. Sometimes I think that if I ran away he wouldn't even notice I had left! Oh he'd notice he wasn't being given his meals anymore, but not that I was gone. Stupid fecker!" Niamh vented, she was really not looking forward to going in there again. She turned to the lads, "So what are you guys going to do now? Are you going to go on or what?"

"Well, we don't really know. We were going to find a place to spend the night but it doesn't look like there's an inn anywhere around." Said Dean.

"You can stay here if you like!"

"Oh I don-" began Séamus.

"No I'm serious, you can stay here for the night and get some good rest. I mean it's not amazing but there is lots of room, and proper beds and I can heat bed clothes by the fire so they're nice and warm when you get in!" Niamh interrupted excitedly.

They looked around at each other and no one could deny that it sounded good!

Oisín shrugged, "Yea, sure ok we'll stay here for the night if it's not too much trouble."

"No, it's no trouble at all! Come on!"

Niamh led them up the overgrown path to the old wooden front door and stepped inside.


End file.
